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Friday, April 1, 2016

ComPet Creature Backstory: Furlock

The Tale of How The Furlock Came to Be (not a Rudyard Kipling story, I might add) is one of the more unusual stories you’re likely to hear.

The giant bats in the bell towers and the rabbits in the meadows used to live very separate lives, as you might expect.

But one day a young rabbit was climbing up to a bell tower for a dare. Somehow he managed to scramble to the very top, but as he started stomping in jubilation the huge bell chimed and gave him such a fright he fell off!

An observant bat saw him falling and deftly scooped him up in mid-air, soaring above the rooftops.

To the surprise of both animals they found the experience of flying together extremely enjoyable. The other animals followed suit and soon the bats were whizzing around with their rabbit passengers, racing each other and having a whale of a time.

It was during one such race that a rabbit called Fur and a bat called Lock were flying towards the finish line over the forest canopy, miles ahead of their competitors.

Far below in the forest were two witches who were duelling to the death. One of their spells misfired, shooting through the air to hit the unlucky pair!

Instantly both animals were fused into a single strange creature with the fur of a rabbit and the wings of a bat!

Terrified, the new creature flew back to its homes to seek help. But the rabbits were disgusted and the bats appalled: they suspected the creature to be the result of a rather…‘too-intimate union’, shall we say.

Friendship was one thing, but this was too far, by jove! Banishment - immediate and eternal - was brought down upon the poor creature’s head.

Furthermore, the two species decided it was far safer to outlaw all joint sporting events to avoid ‘unnatural urges’...

Abandoned and alone the creature flew aimlessly, until one day it heard of a quack Wizard-Doctor called Lord Mountebank. Reasoning that anything was worth a try it begged the con-man to help split it into its component parts, paying him with gold it had stolen from local residents. Never one to turn down money, Lord Mountebank proceeded to pour a sticky, mucus-like liquid onto the creature’s head.

For a while there was merely an unpleasant, embarrassing sound like that of a giant breaking wind. Then thousands of creatures identical to that of the ‘rabbit-bat’ popped out of thin air and covered every surface for miles around!

Once they had been lonely, but no longer!

The creatures gave Mountebank the honour of naming their species and he dubbed them ‘Furlocks’ (imagination was never Lord Mountebank’s strong point).

To this day the rabbits and bats of Posherton still hate Furlocks and see them as a cautionary tale on the rewards of sin (they became rather prudish after the so-called ‘incident’, it has to be said!).

But the cuddly Furlocks hate nothing and nobody. They’re just glad they’re not alone!